believe, universally acceptable. I need not inform those who knew Scotland at that period, that for so young a man, who had not been blessed with a collegiate education, and who had spent his previous life in secular employments, to obtain the approval of our pious, respectable, and judicious friends in his native town and neighbourhood, must have been a strong recommendation to the subsequent Conference. So it was thought by the preachers, and therefore they regularly called him into our work."

Thus was our young friend fairly launched on the rough sea of public life. The paternal kindness of his affectionate friend, his counsels and advice, his instructions as to the best method of study and preaching, together with those cautions and exhortations to pious devotedness and diligent duty which he would not fail to add to all the rest, were a great advantage, and constituted his stock of preparation for the most arduous and important work in which man can be employed. Like the majority of the Wesleyan ministers, he had not enjoyed the advantages of a literary or theological education; he had not graduated at any of the learned Universities; he had been subject to no mental discipline; nor had he been trained in regular habits of study: All the knowledge of divinity he had attained had been acquired by his own independent exertions, or learned in the study of Mr. Stephens. Destitute of property, patronage, books, and without a single sermon or skeleton, this youthful evangelist was suddenly called to leave his secular avocations for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to his fellow-men.

Strange to say, this is the manner in which the Wesleyan ministry has been supplied for nearly a century. The numerous instances of men of remarkable gifts and talents raised from this uncultivated soil, are among the most astonishing moral phenomena on record. There have been, in every period of our history, men who, with no better preparation than that enjoyed by Mr. M'Nicoll, have passed into the highest ranks of intellect, learning, eloquence, and practical wisdom. For truth, pathos,

depth of thought, knowledge of the human heart, profound theology, lofty and sublime views of religion, command of a chaste, or rich and flowing diction, powerful and awakening appeals to the conscience, and, in some cases, beauty and fascination of style, the Methodist ministry has presented, at different times, the finest specimens of pulpit-eloquence. Perhaps, in the case of the few who are capable of rising above all

difficulties, there may be an advantage in the absence of artificial rules, and in the unembarrassed play of native genius. This advantage, if it be one, has been possessed by the gifted men of our Connexion. Hence, not being formed on a common model, they have been excellent on a perfectly different scale; and, perhaps, no two among them, of any eminence, have had any (or, at least, very few) points of resemblance. That which constituted Cowper the poet of his day, and gave an indescribable charm to his verse, which all felt, whilst few understood, was not that he had studied the art from the most approved masters, but because he spoke the simple language of the heart, and adorned its sentiments and feelings in the beautiful drapery of nature. In like manner, deep feeling, an accurate knowledge of religion, and the supplies of illustrative material from books. and observation, absorbed by powerful intellect and native strength, have, in innumerable cases, produced the most powerful orators, and, as Curran remarks, made the pulpit "a throne of light."

But these are exceptions to the rule, and not the rule itself. It is not every man who is called to the performance of great duties, without any suitable preparation, who is in possession of such gigantic powers of mind as independently to sustain him in the task. The few who have these resources to retire upon, raise themselves to eminence, in despite of the most sickening and discouraging difficulties. The history of our ministry, the state of our literature, the amount of good accomplished, and the consummate wisdom and ability with which the government of the Connexion has been conducted, unite to attest this fact. Whilst this system of religion has created, by the blessing of God, an infinite amount of moral feeling and sentiment, led millions to the knowledge of "Christ and him crucified," kindled the joys of salvation in a countless multitude of souls previously dead to every holy feeling, and raised those who have come under its influence, by many degrees, in the scale of intelligence, happiness, and respectability; it has, also, at the same time, found minds of the first order lost like the diamond in the common mass, and, affording them an opportunity of developing their majestic powers, has placed them amongst the highest characters of the human race. If evidence of this were demanded, it could be readily given :-It is amply furnished by the eloquence of Bradburn, by the multifarious learning of

Clarke, by the profound, scriptural, and beautiful writings of Watson, and the various and elegant attainments of M'Nicoll.

But although the most powerful minds have been enabled to surmount all difficulties arising out of the want of instruction and preparation, those of an inferior order have not been able so to emerge. Baffled, defeated, mortified, and broken-hearted, many pious and holy men have, no doubt, at different times been obliged to abandon the work, and have retired to mourn, in the midst of disappointed hopes and secular employments. Others, without being driven to this extreme, have remained in the exercise of a feeble ministry, mortified, and not unfrequently despised by a murmuring people. This inefficiency is not, or but to a slight degree, their own fault. To expect, because some men have attained great eminence, who were originally placed in similar circumstances, that, therefore, they ought to do the same, is to expect, that the sparrow shall keep pace with the eagle, mount as high in the air, and meet the glorious beams of the sun with an equally open vision.

This cannot be; and when provision is made to meet the wants of human nature, the ordinary standard and aggregate of mental power and capability must be the rule. It is most inconsistent to take the highest order of mind in any department of life, by which to judge of the wants of the mass. If, in a numerous family, parents were to adopt the principle, that, because one child manifested great precocity and aptitude in the acquisition of knowledge, they would educate their whole family on the scale of this child's capacity, it is certain that all the rest, if not absolute dunces, would be incapable members of society. The old routine of education and preparation for the great business of life must be pursued; and if, perchance, any one of the household should go beyond the common line, this can only be considered a solitary case. It is so with regard to the Christian ministry. The general grade of intellect, capacity, and natural fitness for the office must, in all times, lie between the highest and the lowest standards. No one would argue, that men who possess only the common qualifications of human nature are in no need of assistance for such a work as the ministry. Instant and rapid intuition is not the mode by which even the most favoured individuals of our race obtain ample knowledge. It is invariably acquired, either by the instructions of a living teacher, or by the slow process of reading. One of

the great disadvantages attending the old system has been, that of leaving young and inexperienced men to find out, by their own observation, even the proper books to be read, and also of discovering, in the winding labyrinths of universal knowledge, the right method of appropriation. In consequence of these difficulties, taking the whole number of cases, it is not going beyond the truth to affirm, that many years of valuable time have been lost; that an infinite amount of talent has been buried; that feebleness and inefficiency have cramped the ministerial exertions of many who might have been most efficient men; and that others, discouraged and confounded, have given up the hope of success in the cultivation of their minds, and the improvement of their ministry, and have sunk into a state of mental inertia.

The stale objection-that this view of the case is substituting human in the place of Divine and spiritual preparation-may be met by the remark, that the two classes of qualifications are perfectly distinct from each other; and that, to supply the candidate for the ministry with those aids which belong to human learning is by no means to trench on the work of the Holy Spirit. The moral fitness, the Divine call, the spiritual gifts, which are always implied in the ministerial office, are all from the direct operation of the Holy Spirit. So are all the principles, motives, and emotions of general piety; and yet no one denies that the instructions of man are necessary. No doubt, the elements of all piety and religion are laid in the mind at the period of conversion; yet it would be deemed, and rightly deemed, the rankest enthusiasm for such persons to consider themselves in so sublimated a state as to preclude the necessity of the teaching of the word of God, and of the ministry which He has appointed. The new nature which is communicated in regeneration includes the life, the power, the judgment, and the tastes essential to the habits of piety and the duties of religion; just as the common humanity of man implies the possession of all the faculties and senses, requisite to prepare him to enjoy the pleasures and perform the duties of life. But though, in the latter case, there exists the aptitude and the capacity for the attainment of a knowledge of the varied arts of life, yet it is found necessary that the rules and laws of the different departments of knowledge should be taught, in order to qualify for the practical discharge of the duties in question, These analogies will hold

good, in their main features, in regard to the ministry. The capacity for the office, in all its departments, is unquestionably given in the call of God and the anointing of his Holy Spirit. Nothing can supply the want of this; so that, although a person destitute of this call and this anointing may be taught all the elegancies of general scholarship, all the languages which were ever spoken on earth, all the lengths and breadths of universal science, and, in addition to all the rest, may attain to the most perfect and commanding oratory; yet, notwithstanding all this, he would have no right to take on him the office of the ministry, and would be totally disqualified for the efficient discharge of its functions. No power of man can supply, either in the attainment of personal religion, or in the fitness for the ministry, that which appropriately belongs to God.

But, then, does it follow from this, that, the foundation being laid in the work of God, nothing is left to human means? This question may be answered by another: "Does the Holy Spirit, with the call to the ministry, either in that or by another distinct operation, communicate, by direct inspiration, a knowledge of the theology of the Holy Scriptures ?" The reply must be in the negative. No such inspiration is vouchsafed. For any thing which can be proved to the contrary, the election to the office of the ministry may be made, in consequence of some natural adaptation and fitness, in unison with the spirit of genuine religion. The peculiar endowments of mind, and capacity for public affairs, as well as facility in speaking, possessed by many men, evidently fit them much more than others for this office. If the great Head of the church call them to the ministry in consequence of these natural intellectual qualities, then it will be obvious that human aid is admissible. Indeed, no objection is ever made against the endeavour, by education, and the advantages of science and general knowledge, to expand, strengthen, elevate, and refine the natural faculties of the mind. Then it seems requisite, in the case under consideration, to do the same; for this plain reason, that, although the knowledge, light, and grace which prepare for the duties of the ministry, flow from the influence of the Spirit of God; yet, as that knowledge must pass through the mind, and be expressed in the language, of the preacher, it must of necessity take its colouring and form from the state of his soul, and the nature of his attainments. The faculties are not quiescent and passive in their reception and